Liquid compositions comprising copolymer mildness actives

The present invention relates to liquid detergent compositions comprising anionic/amphoteric surfactant systems. Addition of specific EO-PO copolymers wherein ratio of anionic to EO-PO polymer is defined has been found to remarkably enhance mildness. In a second embodiment, the invention relates to a method for enhancing mildness in liquid detergent compositions comprising anionic surfactant by adding said defined EO-PO polymers.

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Claims

1. A liquid detergent composition comprising:

(a) a detergent surfactant system comprising
(1) 3% to 30% by wt. total composition anionic or mixtures of anionic surfactants wherein the anionic surfactant comprises 50% or greater of the detergent active system; and
(2) 0.1% to 20% by wt. total composition comprising one or more amphoteric surfactants, and
(b) 0.1 to 20% by wt. of a copolymer comprising both oxyethylene and oxypropylene groups;
wherein the ratio of anionic or anionics to copolymer comprising oxyethylene and oxypropylene groups is 1:1 to 10:1;
wherein the copolymer is defined by having a hydrophilic lipophilic balance (HLB) of >12; as having the percentage of ethylene oxide group comprising the copolymer being >50% to 90%; and as having a molecular weight of 6,000 to 25,000.

2. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the anionic surfactant or surfactants comprises 5% to 20% of the composition.

3. A composition according to claim 1, wherein amphoteric comprises 3% to 10% of the composition.

4. A composition according to claim 1, wherein HLB>18.

5. A composition according to claim 1, wherein Ethylene oxide groups comprises 60% to 85% of the copolymer.

6. A composition according to claim 1, wherein MW of copolymer is 8,000 to 2,000.

7. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the copolymer is terminated with an ethylene oxide group.

8. A method of enhancing mildness of a liquid detergent composition comprising a surfactant system comprising 3% to 30% by wt. anionic or mixture of anionics which method comprises adding 0.1 to 20% by wt. of a copolymer comprising ethylene oxide and propylene oxide groups to said composition;

wherein the ratio of anionic or anionics to copolymer is 1:1 to 10:1;
wherein the copolymer comprising ethylene oxide and propylene oxide groups is defined by having a hydrophilic lipophilic balance (HLB) of >12; as having the percentage of ethylene oxide groups comprising the copolymer being >50% to 90%; and as having a molecular weight of 6,000 to 25,000.
Referenced Cited
U.S. Patent Documents
5064640 November 12, 1991 Kleber et al.
5073363 December 17, 1991 Pellico
5230824 July 27, 1993 Carlson, Sr. et al.
5368845 November 29, 1994 Gaffar et al.
5604189 February 18, 1997 Zhang et al.
Other references
  • McCutcheon's Emulsifiers & Detergents North America Ed.; N.J. 1983, p. 203.
Patent History
Patent number: 5756439
Type: Grant
Filed: Mar 18, 1996
Date of Patent: May 26, 1998
Assignee: Lever Brothers Company, Division of Conopco, Inc. (New York, NY)
Inventors: Mengtao He (Wayne, NJ), Michael Fair (Hackensack, NJ), Michael Massaro (Congers, NY)
Primary Examiner: Margaret Medley
Attorney: Ronald A. Koatz
Application Number: 8/616,945